The fourth iteration of annual national schools debating championships, MahaKumbha 2017, has been concluded with Team St. Xavier’s A and Team St Xavier’s C winning the first prizes for Open and Novice categories respectively. The winning team surpassed Team Rato Bangala School and Antaratam A in the respective finals to lift the champions’ trophies
Debate Network Nepal with support from UNDP Nepal, in association with National SS, Kathmandu Model College and Students For Liberty (Nepal) organized this five-day long tournament. Top 35 best speakers from this championship have been shortlisted to form a national debate team to represent Nepal in World Schools Debate Championships (WSDC) schedules for July, 2018 in Croatia.
The theme of the tournament was sustainable development goals (SDGs) and liberty. Debaters discussed on various topics to identify sustainable solutions to various moral and policy-based issues related to SDGs.
Talking about the event, tournament convenor, Shripa Pradhan said, “It is a pleasure to see around a hundred budding debaters put forward their opinion and discuss important issues around the globe. Debate tournaments like MahaKumbha support young debaters acquire essential skills that help them grow as an intellectual and sensible individual.”
The chief-adjudicators of the tournament were Pawan Adhikari and Nishma Gautam from Nepal, and Parth Maniktala from India with Adel Mostaque Ahmed from Bangladesh as the advisor. Avani Adhikari from Rato Bangala School and Pradeep Ghimire grabbed the best speaker and best adjudicator award respectively.
